Over 90% of Gaza schools destroyed, says UN expert

Over 90 per cent of schools in Gaza have been either completely or partially destroyed, rendering them unfit for use according to United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed.

Shaheed said that many schools have come under repeated attacks, even after being repurposed as shelters for civilians and stressed that the recovery of Gaza’s education system depends primarily on ending the war and Israeli occupation.

She described the destruction of Gaza’s education sector amid the Israeli offensive as “genocidal”, explaining that the term refers to the complete and deliberate annihilation of an education system.

Although the second semester of the academic year began yesterday in the occupied Palestinian territories, schools in Gaza remain closed since the start of Israel’s war on October 7, 2023.

Shaheed highlighted that all of Gaza’s universities have been destroyed, in addition to the bombing of 13 libraries and the complete destruction of the central archive, which contained 150 years of Gaza’s history.

She underscored that education goes beyond acquiring skills; it is essential for self-understanding, collective identity, social cohesion, and progress.

She said that the only viable solution to the crisis is to establish large-scale scholarship programmes for Palestinian students, leveraging the knowledge and expertise of highly educated Palestinians in the diaspora.